Sports

The 2024 Waukon boys track and field team will experience the spectrum of participation perspective this spring. On the high side of that spectrum is the fact that one-fourth of this season’s participants will bring back letterwinning experience from previous seasons, but on the opposite end of that spectrum is the fact that the experienced one-fourth is part of only 44 total participants, the smallest participation numbers veteran head coach Ted Snitker has seen in his tenure - down considerably from his highest participation numbers ever of 71 team members just two seasons ago.

The Waukon girls track and field team will reap the rewards of having 14 young ladies return this spring with varsity letterwinning experience from previous seasons, with more than half of those returning veterans bringing back experience at the highest level of high school competition in the state of Iowa. That veteran crew consists of good representation from each of the three eligible returnable grade levels to headline a squad of 37 young ladies for this spring.

The Kee girls and boys track teams got their competition season underway indoors at the annual Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Indoor Meet held Friday, March 15 at Luther College in Decorah. The Lady Hawks battled to a third-place team finish in their nine-team field and the Hawk boys finished in sixth place, with each squad recording at least one event victory.

The Kee track and field girls established themselves among the top competitors in the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) in this season’s early-going by claiming a third-place team finish at the annual UIC Indoor Meet at Luther College. Winning four events and finishing runner-up in two more, the Lady Hawks racked up 78.5 points to finish in third place, just a point and a half behind second-place Central Elkader.

The 2023-2024 Waukon girls wrestling season marked another year of growth for the young program, and that growth came in a variety of ways for the Lady Indians as the team fielded its highest participation numbers so far. It is that growth, in so many aspects, that the coaching staff of Danielle and Wade Bucknell sees as this season’s greatest accomplishment.

“Our greatest accomplishment this year was expanding our team, coaching staff, and having most weight classes filled,” the Bucknell tandem shared. “We added Miles Howe as a coach this season and his knowledge in wrestling and personality really contributed to the positive atmosphere in the wrestling room. Also, in a few short seasons we’ve gone from a majority of weight classes unfilled to only two open weight classes. Our middle school program is really thriving with good numbers, which we are looking forward to continually growing as well.”

The 2023-2024 Waukon boys wrestling season proved to be another step forward in a continuing trend of growth and improvement for the program that once yielded as many forfeits as it did wrestlers in its line-up. Proof of this season’s advancement lies in the mat Tribe’s 14-6 dual meet record, a second consecutive season of sending three wrestlers to the State Tournament and being able to consistently fill the entire 14 weight classes in its varsity line-up.

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Several members of the Waukon girls and boys track teams got their first competition of the 2024 season under their belts early last week when they competed in their respective Dickinson Relays events at the UNI-Dome on the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. The Waukon girls had more than a dozen team members competing in a variety of individual and relay events in their Tuesday, March 5 competition, and the Indian boys participated in just one event Monday, March 4, with each squad bringing home finishes within the top 10 in their respective events.

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The Kee girls basketball team played to an 18-6 season record, marking the most wins for the Lady Hawks in six seasons, when they played their way to a 22-2 season record and their most recent trip to the Class 1A State Tournament during their 2017-2018 campaign. That 18-6 result included a 13-3 effort in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Kee bucket brigade in a tie for second place with Central Elkader, one of the three teams the Hawks split with during this winter’s UIC campaign, with those other two league splits coming to UIC champion MFL/MarMac and third-place North Fayette Valley and Kee getting the ultimate upperhand in defeating Central in a third game to advance in regional tournament play.

The historic run that has made the 2023-2024 Kee boys basketball season the best in program history was brought to an unfortunate close this past week, with the Hawks ending up on each end of a pair of three-point thrillers in the furthest postseason push ever by a Kee boys basketball team. The bucket Hawks began the week by laying claim to their first-ever district championship after pulling out a 59-56 overtime thriller in the Class 1A District 12 title game played against fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad South Winneshiek Tuesday, February 20 at Waukon High School.

For the second consecutive season, the Waukon boys wrestling team qualified three young men for every wrestlers’ ultimate destination, continuing the recent growth of the program from more than a dozen years of no more than just a single State Tournament qualifier. This year’s three qualifiers for the season grand finale held at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Wednesday-Saturday, February 14-17 remained in pursuit of the program’s first State Tournament placewinning in half a dozen seasons, coming within a match of achieving that next growth accomplishment as all three Tribe matmen had their first-ever State Tournament qualification brought to a close shy of a podium placewinning within the top eight wrestlers of their respective weight brackets of 24 competitors, with two of those wrestling Indians being able to bring back their season grand finale experience to the Waukon wrestling room next season.

The start down the postseason tournament path for the Kee boys basketball team played out to somewhat of an easy stroll as the bucket Hawks outscored their first two Class 1A District 12 Tournament opponents by a combined 143-54 in advancing to the program’s first district championship game since the 2009-2010 season, when names such as Joe Manning, Blake Feuerhelm, John Heiderscheit, Jalen Cooper, Cole Carroll and Jordan Milton appeared in the scorebook. The Kee boys began this year’s tournament trail with a 65-11 domination of Tripoli at home Monday, February 12 before handling Starmont by a 78-43 final result Thursday, February 15 in the district semifinal round of competition.